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Expressway (band)
'Expressway '''is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1988. Despite having limited successes in their native country, only charting in The Music Channel American Radio Airplay chart, they are mostly successful in Portugal and have charted in The Music Channel Chart. During the Nineties, the line-up consisted of lead singer and rhythm guitarist Robert Langley, guitarist James Clarke, bassist Claire Marcus, keyboardist Andrew Langley and drummer Jake Andress. The band broke up on February 14, 1998 after ten years of performing. Later that year, Andress died of a sudden heart attack in June 15, at the age of 28. However, exactly a year later, the band announced their reformation and in 2001, Mitchell Anderton became the band's new drummer. Biography Early years (1988-1989) Expressway was formed by friends Robert Langley (lead singer), James Clarke (lead guitar) and Jake Andress (drummer) in February 1988. The three-piece band started out as a psychedelic rock band influenced by Van Halen and Bon Jovi but Langley felt that they would be very unknown with the genre as it was then unpopular after doing demos. Soon after that they delayed their first live performance and Langley welcomed his brother Andrew, who was a keyboardist to the band, the following month. The band began demoing with Andrew that same month. The music was described by Clarke as "too New Order". So they decided to add another member after Robert felt that the band was more of a five-piece instead of a four-piece with Andress recommending Langley his cousin Claire Marcus. After a successful jamming session with the band, Claire joined the band as the bassist. The band officially made their first live performance on June 1988, after this Langley recieved a phone call from a executive of Apparel Records saying that they have given a record deal. The band officially signed the five-album record deal on July 1988 with Apparel. The band continued to perform more songs and began recording a full demo album in mid 1989. Rise to fame (1990-1993) After recording the demo album, the band eventually re-recorded the full album as their debut album on January 1990 and completed it three months later. The album was later mixed and the band was unsure about making up the title, so they finally chose ''Items of Forgiveness ''as the title, plus the lead single was indeed "Items of Forgiveness". "Items of Forgiveness" was released on May 10, 1990 as the lead single, backed up with a music video which recieved heavy rotation from the then-new Apparel TV channel. It became a number five hit on the Apparel TV chart on June 1990. The album ''Items of Forgiveness ''was released on July 1, 1990, to critical and commercial success. The album was followed by five more singles: "No Likes You", "Lightning", "Click Shade", "Nodnol (London)" and the cover of Visage's "Fade to Grey". After a four-month tour promoting the abum, the band took a six-month break on August 1991 and ended their break on February 1992, when they began demoing for their follow-up to ''Items of Forgiveness. After completing demos for the second album, the band began recording the follow-up, titled Untold Riches on March 1992 and completed it on July of the same year. The lead single to Untold Riches, "Are You... Insane!?" was released on August 10, 1992. Untold Riches ''was scheduled to be released on August 30, but due to problems with the album being published, it was postponed to September 1. The album was finally released on November 10, 1992. ''Untold Riches, like its predecessor, was a critical and commercial success. It was followed by five more singles: "Hey Do Ya Wanna Play Some Game?", "Loneliness", the title track, "Blues (Part One)" and its sequel "Blues (Part Two)". The band said that each studio album they recorded will have six singles, excluding non-studio albums. Switching genres and widespread breakthrough (1994-1997) Unsatisfied of being a new wave band, the band began demoing new material on January 1994 after the conclusion of the Untold Riches ''tour a month before. During demoing, they became influenced by the then-popular grunge movement after listening to Pearl Jam and Nirvana. Also their sound began to become more mature. The band recording their third album, titled ''Sweat on March 1994, a month before Kurt Cobain's suicide. After hearing about the death of Cobain, Langley began to write a tribute to Cobain, titled "A Song for Kurt", which appeared in the album. The album completed on July 1994, followed by the release of the first single "The Fox and the Hound" on August 10. "The Fox and the Hound", inspired by the Disney film of the same name, was first debuted on August 1 on Apparel Radio, nine days before the official release. The single was A-listed by Apparel Radio and Apparel Magazine praised the single, condemning as "a NIN-meets-Depeche Mode single with darkish music". Sweat ''was released on October 2, 1994, to overwhelmingly positive reviews, with critics praising the alternative metal/pop metal sound and the stylistic changes. The album was later followed by the singles "Wanting You", the title track, "Hand and a Glove", "Calm Down" and a cover of "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath. The band began demoing for their fourth album after concluding the ''Sweat ''tour on October 1995. After demoing sessions were completed on March, the band began recording the fourth album ''Questions of a Downfall ''on April and completed it on July, with the lead single "Fatality" released the following month. The album was released on September 2, 1996. Like the previous three, the album was a critical and commercial success, becoming their fourth concecutive number-one on Apparel TV Album Chart. It was followed by the singles: "Schwarzenegger's Chopper", which was about the Austrian-American former bodybuilder-turned-actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the pop-alternative metal song "Drive", the Foo Fighters-influenced "Excuse Me", the anthemic "Twenty-Five" and the acoustic title track. During an interview promoting the tour, the band officially announced that they would be breaking up on Valentine's Day 1998, exactly ten years after they formed. When explained the reason, Langley said that each band member would be doing a solo project. By this time, the band released their greatest hits album ''The Expressway Collection ''on November 1, 1997, consisting of all 24 singles the band had released at the time and two new songs, both released as a single: "Good Luck" and "The Farewell Song". Breakup and Andress' death (1998-1999) The band performed their last performance on Apparel TV as part of a two-hour TV special on February 14, 1998, with "The Farewell Song" performing as the last song. The TV special titled, ''The Farewell Performance became Apparel TV's highest-rated TV special prior to becoming The Music Channel with 4 million viewers watching the events. After this the five members began going solo: Langley and his brother formed a side project called Rob and Andy, Clarke became a record producer, producing songs by The Limits, Gearshift, Vox, Complex, Shadow Clock and Lantern, Marcus began her new wave-influenced side project and Andress switched to acoustic guitar with his only album Acoustica, which was backed by four singles, all accompanioned with a video. After the release of the fourth and final single from Acoustica ''and conclusion of his solo tour, Andress quietly retired from music on May 1998. However he began to suffer heart problems and died of a sudden heart attack at his home on June 16, 1998 with his sister Marie by his side. His last words were: "Marie, my time has come and tell my ex-bandmates that I loved them." His death devastated his former bandmates, especially Claire, who began to have a nervous breakdown. The band attended his funeral on July 1, 1998. In an November 1998 interview with Apparel TV, Langley said that the band would reunite in the near future as a honour to Andress' wish to continue Expressway without him. Reunion, critical acclaim and new drummer (1999-2002) On June 16, 1999, the first anniversary of Andress' death, the Langley brothers, Claire and James officially announced that Expressway will be reuniting without Andress. The first performance after the official announcement was on the Apparel TV studios on July 1, 1999, with longtime friend Mitchell Anderton performing the drums. A week later, the band began doing a six-week tour, performing darker versions of their songs and during the tour, they began recording on what would later become ''Death of a Friend. Production of the album was completed on October 30, 1999, making it the shortest production on an Expressway album. During the production, the band used old recordings of Andress' drum parts to incorporate some songs of the album. After this, the band began filming the music video for the title track on October 12, 1999 and completed it five days later. "Death of a Friend" was released on October 31, 1999 as the lead single. Expressway's fifth album Death of a Friend ''was released on December 12, 1999, to positive reviews, with critics praising the dark sound and considered to be the band's best album. The album debuted at number one and stayed in the Top 10 chart for 16 weeks. The album became Expressway's most successful album, overtaking ''Questions of a Downfall. The album was also promoted by five more singles: "In Memoriam", a cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt", "Letters to Jake", "Mourning" and a cover of Edie Brickell's "What I Am", in which Claire performed lead vocals. The band later continued using old recording of Andress' drum parts for their next album. Before recording the sixth album, the band signed a new contract with Apparel after their five-album deal was fulfilled. The band began recording their sixth album, titled Recalled to Charge ''on October 2000 and completed it on March 2001. The album became the band's sixth number one album and it was promoted by six singles: the covers of The Smashing Pumpkins' "The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning" and "The End Is The Beginning Is The End", "No Big Deal", "It's All Lies", "Recalled to Charge" and "Welcome to the Show". During the promotion, Mitchell Anderton officially became Andress' replacement. Musical style changes and continued success (2003-2012) After the 2001-2002 tour, the band began recording their seventh album ''On the Blues ''on October 2002 and the album was put on hold in January 2003 when Langley (who is the main songwriter) suffered writer's block after beginning to lose focus. With this, Langley was unable to complete the four remaining songs, leaving with each bandmember writing songs from the album. After recovering, Langley completed the songs and the songs eventually appeared on the next album. Recent events, touring, new albums and switching to extended plays and singles (2013-present) Expressway announced that they would be releasing two new albums in 2014 and confirmed that the twelfth album will be their last. Also on August 1, 2013, they announced that the two albums will be a concept album and a rock opera respectively. The albums will be influenced by Green Day's albums ''American Idiot ''and ''21st Century Breakdown. Marcus officially confirmed the title of the next two albums as Expressway 2014 ''and ''The Story of a Rock Band. Although The Story of a Rock Band ''will be the band's last album, Langley has said that Expressway will continue to perform live and record new material. Also, they will remain part of Apparel Records but instead of recording full-length albums, they will be recording extended plays. He has explained that another full-length album will be "too exhaustive" and that most members want to focus on other projects, though Expressway will continue. Marcus has cited Ash's ''A-Z Singles ''and The Smashing Pumpkins' ''Teargarden by Kaleidyscope as influences. Musical style and influences Expressway has been described as pop rock, hard rock, punk revival, alternative rock, grunge, new wave, blues rock, psychedelic rock, alternative metal, post-grunge, pop metal, acid rock and recently jazz rock. Claire Marcus is known for her glam rock-influenced looks, most notably is Death of a Friend, when she wore Gothic Lolita clothing. She would continue wearing it until she wore Kyoshi Warrior-influenced makeup for the albums IX ''and ''X. Marcus has said her Gothic Lolita look was inspired by Mana of the Japanese visual kei band Malice Mizer and Patricia Morrison of the British gothic rock band The Sisters of Mercy. The band has cited U2, Bon Jovi, Faith No More, The Beatles, Sonic Youth, R.E.M., Robert Palmer, Elvis Presley, Aerosmith, The Smashing Pumpkins, No Doubt, Garbage, Evanescence, Paramore, Michael Bolton and Bruce Springsteen as influences. Band members ;Current members *Robert Langley - lead vocals, rhythm guitar (1988-1998, 1999-present) *James Clarke - lead guitar, backing vocals (1988-1998, 1999-present) *Claire Marcus - bass, backing vocals (1988-1998, 1999-present) *Andrew Langley - keyboards, piano, synthesisers, saxophone, trumpet, trombone (1988-1998, 1999-present) *Mitchell Anderton - drums, percussion, backing vocals (2001-present, touring member: 1999-2001) ;Past members *Jake Andress - drums, percussion, backing vocals (1988-1998, died 1998) Discography Studio albums *''Items of Forgiveness (released: July 1, 1990) *''Untold Riches ''(released: November 10, 1992) *''Sweat ''(released: October 20, 1994) *''Questions of a Downfall ''(released: September 2, 1996) *''Death of a Friend ''(released: December 12, 1999) *''Recalled to Charge ''(released: May 11, 2001) *''On the Blues ''(released: August 10, 2003) *''Feeling Alive ''(released: May 12, 2006) *''IX ''(released: July 20, 2009) *''X ''(released: March 12, 2011) *''Expressway 2014 ''(released: March 13, 2014) *''The Story of a Rock Band ''(released: September 10, 2014) Extended plays *''Expressway Covers The Police ''(released: June 16, 2010) *#"Roxanne" *#"Message in a Bottle" *#"Walking on the Moon" *#"Don't Stand So Close to Me" *#"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" *#"Every Breath You Take" *''Have Yourself a Merry Christmas ''(released: December 12, 2012) *#"Have Yourself a Merry Christmas" *#"Stay Another Day" *#"All I Want for Christmas is You" *#"Lonely This Christmas" *#"When a Child is Born" *#"Do They Know It's Christmas?" Compilation albums *''The Expressway Collection ''(released: November 11, 1997) *''The Modern Collection ''(released: Singles From ''Items of Forgiveness #"Items of Forgiveness" (released: May 10, 1990) #*Genre: Pop rock, alternative rock, new wave #"No One Likes You" (released: September 5, 1990) #*Genre: Alternative rock, punk rock #"Lightning" (released: November 10, 1990) #*Genre: Pop rock, new wave #"Click Shade" (released: January 13, 1991) #*Genre: Alternative rock, new wave #"Nodnol (London)" (released: March 1, 1991) #*Genre: Alternative rock, alternative dance #"Fade to Grey" (released: July 1, 1991) #*Genre: New wave From Untold Riches #"Are You... Insane!?" (released: August 10, 1992) #*Genre: Alternative rock, new wave #"Hey Do Ya Wanna Play Some Game?" (released: November 1, 1992) #*Genre: Pop rock, pop punk, new wave #"Loneliness" (released: March 12, 1993) #*Genre: Pop rock, dream pop #"Untold Riches" (released: May 1, 1993) #*Genre: Pop rock, psychedelic rock #"Blues (Part One)" (released: September 1, 1993) #*Genre: Blues rock #"Blues (Part Two)" (released: November 12, 1993) #*Genre: Blues rock, rhythm and blues From Sweat #"The Fox and the Hound" (released: August 10, 1994) #*Genre: Alternative rock, industrial #"Wanting You" (released: November 12, 1994) #*Genre: Alternative metal #"Sweat" (released: March 10, 1995) #*Genre: Pop metal, alternative rock #"Hand and a Glove" (released: May 1, 1995) #*Genre: Punk revival, grunge #"Calm Down" (released: August 12, 1995) #*Genre: Soft rock #"Paranoid" (released: September 1, 1995) #*Genre: Punk metal From Questions of a Downfall '' #"Fatality" (released: August 1, 1996) #*Genre: Pop metal #"Schwarzenegger's Choppers" (released: November 3, 1996) #*Genre: Acid rock, pop rock #"Drive" (released: January 5, 1997) #*Genre: Pop metal, alternative metal #"Excuse Me" (released: March 12, 1997) #*Genre: Post-grunge #"Twenty-Five" (released: May 15, 1997) #*Genre: Alternative rock #"Questions of a Downfall" (released: August 1, 1997) #*Genre: Acoustic rock, piano rock From ''The Expressway Collection #"Good Luck" (released: October 10, 1997) #*Genre: Pop rock, new wave, alternative rock #"The Farewell Song" (released: January 1, 1998) #*Genre: Soft rock From Death of a Friend #"Death of a Friend" (released: October 31, 1999) #*Genre: Gothic rock, hard rock #"In Memoriam" (released: December 16, 1999) #*Genre: Emo, soft rock #"Hurt" (released: March 1, 2000) #*Genre: Gothic rock, industrial rock #"Letters to Jake" (released: May 12, 2000) #*Genre: Alternative rock, soft rock #"Mourning" (released: July 14, 2000) #*Genre: Emo, dream pop #"What I Am" (released: September 1, 2000) #*Genre: Pop rock, new wave From Recalled to Charge #"The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning" (released: March 12, 2001) #*Genre: Dark ambient, industrial rock, synthpop #"The End Is The Beginning Is The End" (released: June 12, 2001) #*Genre: Alternative rock, industrial rock, gothic rock, alternative metal #"No Big Deal" (released: September 30, 2001) #*Genre: Pop rock, soft rock #"It's All Lies" (released: December 15, 2001) #*Genre: New wave, pop rock #"Recalled to Charge" (released: February 13, 2002) #*Genre: Pop rock, electronica #"Welcome to the Show" (released: May 11, 2002) #*Genre: Pop rock, glam rock From On the Blues #"Middlelength" (released: June 13, 2003) #*Genre: Pop rock, alternative rock #"On the Blues" (released: September 12, 2003) #*Genre: Blues rock #"Love and Betrayal" (released: December 1, 2003) #*Genre: Pop rock, post-grunge, soft rock #"Excuse Me, Mr." (released: February 4, 2004) #*Genre: Pop rock, post-grunge #"Shrunk" (released: May 23, 2004) #*Genre: Pop metal, symphonic rock #"Password" (released: August 1, 2004) #*Genre: New wave From Feeling Alive #"Forgiven" (released: November 4, 2005) #*Genre: Alternative rock, dream pop #"Pardon Me" (released: March 2, 2006) #*Genre: New wave, pop rock #"How You Remind Me" (released: June 20, 2006) #*Genre: Post-grunge, alternative rock #"Punch and Judy" (released: October 5, 2006) #*Genre: Jazz rock, pop rock #"Systematic Error" (released: January 24, 2007) #*Genre: New wave, pop rock #"Feeling Alive" (released: March 14, 2007) #*Genre: Electronic rock, pop rock From IX #"Truth" (released: December 4, 2008) #*Genre: Pop rock, symphonic rock #"Heretic" (released: May 10, 2009) #*Genre: Alternative rock, alternative metal #"Where Are We?" (released: September 4, 2009) #*Genre: Pop rock, alternative rock #"Movements" (released: January 26, 2010) #*Genre: Progressive pop rock, pop rock #"Fired Up" (released: March 27, 2010) #*Genre: Experimental rock, alternative rock #"Push It" (released: May 23, 2010) #*Genre: Electronic rock From X'' #"Shut Your Mouth" (released: January 12, 2011) #*Genre: Electronic rock, alternative rock, hip hop #"Click" (released: May 14, 2011) #*Genre: Pop rock, alternative rock #"Crash and Burn" (released: August 15, 2011) #*Genre: Alternative rock, grunge #"Don't Speak" (released: November 16, 2011) #*Genre: Pop rock, alternative rock, soft rock #"Pass It On" (released: March 4, 2012) #*Genre: Pop rock, hard rock #"Torn Apart" (released: July 20, 2012) #*Genre: Electronica From ''The Modern Collection #"I'll Be Your Pal" (released: October 25, 2012) #*Genre: Lo-fi, power pop #"Too Late to Do So" (released: January 4, 2013) #*Genre: Alternative rock, pop rock